This is a discussion on Rumor: Recent Wii U Update Tripled the CPU Clock speed, Making it put out 3x performance within the Nintendo forum, part of the Multiplatform Talk; News: Rumour: Could the Wii U System Update Improve Clock Speeds? Page 1 at Nintendo Cubed3
Reports have suggested that ...

Reports have suggested that the recent Wii U firmware update has improved the capabilities of the Wii U as a whole.

These reports should certainly be taken with a big dollop of salt, maybe with a sprinkle of pepper, but do open up the possibility of some improvements outside system stability.

With a more optimised and refined system, there already appears to be more ram available to be used in applications and games. But how can the system update "unlock" clock speeds on both the Wii U's CPU and GPU?

The unconfirmed reports suggest that IBM PowerPC 7xx-based tri-core processor "Espresso" clocked at 1.24 GHz prior to the more recent Wii U update, but is supposedly over-clocked at 3.24 GHz now. Likewise the GPU speeds are said have gone from 550 MHz to 800 MHz.

An increase in performance isn't unheard of and has been utlised on other hardware in the past but the dramatic increase has caused alarm bells for techies concerned with the authenticity of the reports.

A marginal jump is possible and perhaps more likely if Nintendo deem the system to be stable enough to either overclock the processor or "unlock" its potential if it were underclocked to begin with.

TL;DR
Nintendo overclocked their Wii U. so now it's 3x faster than before CPU Wise.

everyone is scrambling to find out if it's true or not right now.

"You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant."

If they've increased clock speed it'll be due to unthrottling a deliberately impaired hardware component. It's still nowhere near enough to be considered "next-gen" and won't make any difference come October / November when the PS4 and Infinity hit the market.

The Wii U is still a dead duck, condemned to a handful of delayed first-party titles and smartphone-esque shovelware.

In a perfect world they could maintain these speeds and this would actually matter. -_- However overclocking is when you push the system farther that it should EVER go and the heat caused from that is ridiculous and would probably start to fry important stuff lol. My cousin overclocks his PC and actually sticks his CPU in a mini freezer to prevent heat damage. Aaaaannd it still wouldn't be on the same continent as the PS4. Or Xbox 720/Infinity for that matter lol.